Archive for the 'Schools' Tag Under 'Letters To The Editor' Category

SAN CLEMENTE, Stan Wasbin: When is it OK to break the law? The question comes to mind when pondering Senate Bill 48, the recently enacted legislation that requires “instruction in social sciences to also include a study of the role and contributions of

". . . lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans . . . to the development of California and the United States." For a variety of reasons this intrusive, unnecessary and inappropriate mandate ought to be ignored.

Compliance with SB48 would require spending money to buy new textbooks and develop new curricula subject to state scrutiny and approval. At a time when school districts are strapped financially, it is unacceptable for Sacramento to force them to spend nonexistent dollars solely to brainwash our children with politically correct thought that most parents oppose.

Moreover, why should teachers be forced to spend any time addressing historical figures' sexual orientations? The topic is as relevant to their “role and contributions” as it is to their astrological signs. And, given how limited a teacher's class time is, each district would have to consider what to delete from the current social sciences curriculum to make room to teach what SB48 requires.

High school and college textbooks average $100 each; and many teachers change textbook requirements each year resulting in the student left holding hundreds of dollars worth of books that he cannot sell back that the teacher obviously deems worthless.

There is no reason for teachers to change textbooks every year. Doing so indicates one or more of the following:

CORONA DEL MAR, Clyde Harkins: The Supreme Court has never ruled in favor of a law that mandates citizens purchase a specific good or service. The Obama/Pelosi cabal in the House of Representatives that gave us this unconstitutional provision was well aware of the unprecedented nature of this mandate, which is why they hid behind closed doors to change the wording of the mandate by calling it a “tax” in the final Senate version.

Likewise the “severability” clause that would have kept Obamacare intact if the mandate was ruled unconstitutional was intentionally left out of the House version with the intention of adding it later to the final Senate version in conference committee. The reason both of these provisions were intentionally omitted from the original bill was to continue the pathetic, partisan charade that Obama was not raising “taxes” and to conjure a false belief that the mandate was so instrumental to the bill that Obamacare could not exist without it.

Then Scott Brown won the Massachusetts special-election Senate seat and Democrats no longer had a supermajority to pass the bill. They were forced to cram the House version down our throats through reconciliation, thereby preventing them from adding the Senate language that would have avoided the constitutional issue.

When the Supreme Court strikes down the mandate and, then because there is no severability clause, strikes down the entire atrocious, venal bill there will be rejoicing throughout the nation as well as a feeling of sweet justice at last, and it will mark the end of the nightmare known as the Obama presidency, and the beginning of morning again in America.

TUSTIN, William Sauvageot: David Sayen, regional administrator for Medicare, is a good cheerleader. His column [“What the health reform law does for Medicare,” Life, March 21] touts two benefits of the Affordable Care Act: gradual closing of the “doughnut hole” in the Prescription Drug Program, and coverage for wellness programs.

What he fails to mention is that the ACA will strip some $500 billion from the popular Medicare Advantage programs (part of the administration's plan to fund the trillion-dollar-plus ACA). Many of those currently in such a program will find themselves without any comparable coverage. Indeed, my 69-year old sister, who has been enrolled for years in a Medicare Advantage program offered through her employer, was left with no insurance after the ACA was passed, and her employer dropped the health benefit.

She found that, due to the ACA, such programs were no longer being offered in her state (New Hampshire) at any price. And, unable to buy insurance across state lines (thanks to resistance to this sensible Republican proposal), she now buys health insurance with premiums five times larger than she and her employer combined had paid previously. This is progress?

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Edward A. Sussman: The sad and distressing news regarding Orange County's public schools having to cut another $269 million [“O.C. schools might slash $269 million,” Local, March 21] is a pathetic reminder of how degrading our priorities have become. We simply cannot continue to shortchange our children's education and hope to create a better future for them.

California is far below the rest of the nation on what we spend per pupil at a time when we need to focus on providing a positive school experience to guarantee a better tomorrow. Many school districts have gone to fewer days for students to balance budgets, furlough days for teachers and staff, increased class sizes and layoffs, and this at a time when we need more.

Perhaps if we reduced our elected officials' staff, reduced their work year by five to 10 days and cut their budgets by the same percentage as those in our schools, we would not have to make these outrageous cuts in our children's education. Isn't it time for us to once again make our schools a source of pride in our state and not force schools to raise money by conducting bake sales, having students wash cars on the weekend in school parking lots and holding raffles? When a cure for cancer and other deadly diseases is found it, will be as a result of a dedicated scientist, perhaps a product of our public school system.

LA MIRADA, Earl Greene: Mark Landsbaum's column was excellent [Are we too dumb to vote? March 12], and brought to mind Winston Churchill's famous quote, “The best argument against a democracy, is a five minute conversation with the average voter.”

In order for an immigrant to become a United States citizen, he or she must not only be able to read and speak English effectively, but also pass a simple 10-question multiple choice tests, regarding United States government and history.

Wouldn't it be prudent to print our ballots in English only and require all citizens to take and pass a similar test, in order to register to vote?

The only current requirements are that you be a citizen and 18 years old.

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Mary V. Kane: Responding to letter-writer Lorie Velarde [“Education must clean its house,” March 3], I really hate it when parents jump to conclusions about something of which they know nothing. My daughter teaches in an Elementary School in Culver City, and the reason that her parking space is empty 45 minutes before and after school, is because she doesn't drive her car -- she takes two buses to get to her school, arriving there at 7:30 in the morning, and leaving very seldom before 5:00. This is to say nothing of her sponsorship of the Running Club (early in the morning before school starts), the Student Council, in charge of the bulletin boards in the hall ways and every year during February, she writes, directs and produces a program for the school about Black History -- as she believes that Black History is American History.

Does Velarde realize how many teachers put in extra hours on weekends, in the evenings, at open houses and parent-teacher conferences after regular school hours? This winter, my daughter, another teacher and a parent took a number of their students to the Mahler concert performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra -- this was organized by my daughter. She has taken boys in her classes, in the summertime, to Dodger baseball games if they have never been to a Major League Baseball game before; the girls, she takes shopping and for lunch.

The school district doesn't pay for all this -- who do you think does? I know that my daughter isn't the only teacher who cares for her students so much that she will go the extra mile for them. Think about this before you take teachers to task.

By the way, my daughter was nominated for "Teacher of the Year" in her school district; however, someone else received the honor, but I am very proud of her.

IRVINE, Norm Ewers: I found it disturbing that Kim Farris-Berg, in her defense of replacing Capistrano Unified School District's Barcelona Hills Elementary School with a private charter school, Oxford Prep, could treat so lightly the adverse effect charter schools have on public schools ["A school lost, options gained," Feb. 26]. She writes that Oxford Prep families could stay "rooted in the community they grew up in," yet claims that Capistrano Unified School District has "also reaped financial rewards by attracting students from other districts -- and the per-pupil funding that comes with them. The adjacent Saddleback Valley district could see this as a threat to its own fiscal viability. It could also act on the opportunity to employ a similar strategy...."

I see the growth of private charter schools is part of growing effort to privatize the commonweal; everything from Medicare and Social Security to the education of our children. As a consequence we are headed for a two-tier education system; private academies for the haves, and underfunded public schools for the have-nots. Not only that, the record shows that charter schools are not always as successful as Farris-Berg suggests. New York City's unhappy experience replacing public schools with private charter schools and what is happening right now in Los Angeles Unified School District are cases in point.

A literate electorate is essential to American democracy. Public schools, properly funded, have met that need for generations. We tinker with them at our peril. [More letters on education]

We don't need students to receive more of the same politically correct curriculum. We need less political correctness and more real education. I support Habermehl's position for more local control, but not his position on more time in school and less time with families.

The problem is not one of time and length but one of quality and emphasis. Right now education has top-down control. The state Department of Education has control, and wants more control, over your children and what they learn. Today too much time and effort is supposed to be devoted to teaching a biased, liberal/socialist agenda. The only ones really pushing longer school years and school days are the unions and parents who would gladly cede parental responsibility and rights to anyone for any reason.

ANAHEIM, Jim Roznos: Air Force One lands at Los Angeles International Airport during rush hour, streets are closed and thousands of commuters are inconvenienced again by the president's visit. Maybe he's here for an economics forum? Maybe a jobs fair? Maybe to meet Vladimir Putin, or to negotiate a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians? No. He's here for campaign fundraisers in West Los Angeles and Orange County.

Meanwhile, on the local news there wasn't even a hint of outrage, or even mild concern about the timing of his visit. Rather, the “news” anchors seemed almost giddy about his arrival.

If former President George W. Bush pulled something like this, the media would label Bush an “elitist.” I can almost hear it, “How insensitive that he would cause such a commuting nightmare. Clearly, he's not in touch with the blue-collar working man, simply trying to get home from his long day of labor.”

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